I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for performing system search to detect for a wireless communication network.
II. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, packet data, broadcast, messaging, and so on. These wireless networks may be capable of supporting communication for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such wireless networks include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks, and Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) networks. These wireless networks may utilize various radio access technologies (RATs) such as Wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA), cdma2000, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), and so on, which are known in the art.
A terminal may be capable of communicating with different wireless networks such as W-CDMA and GSM networks. The terminal typically performs system search upon being powered on in order to detect for a wireless network from which the terminal can obtain service. System search entails performing search and acquisition, as necessary, to obtain service from a wireless network. For the system search, the terminal may first attempt to acquire one of the wireless networks from which the terminal has obtained service in the past. If the acquisition is unsuccessful, then the terminal may perform a frequency scan across a frequency band in order to find a wireless network from which the terminal can obtain service. Frequency scan may entail attempting acquisition on each frequency in which a wireless network may operate. Since there may be many frequencies in a given frequency band, the frequency scan may be very time consuming, e.g., on the order of minutes for a crowded frequency band on which many wireless networks may be operating. The long frequency scan causes long delay in obtaining service, which is highly undesirable.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficiently perform system search in order to obtain service faster.